105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #14240378

RESPIRATORY,TANK TRUCK,CONFINED SPACE,PPE,METHYLENE CHLORIDE,WORK RULES,INHALATION,TANK CLEANING,TOXIC FUMES,CHEMICAL

Event
RESPIRATORY,TANK TRUCK,CONFINED SPACE,PPE,METHYLENE CHLORIDE,WORK RULES,INHALATION,TANK CLEANING,TOXIC FUMES,CHEMICAL
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
14240378
Report ID
626600

Event description

EMPLOYEE KILLED WHEN HE BREATHED METHYLENE CHLORIDE IN TANK

Investigation abstract

EMPLOYEE #1 AND ANOTHER EMPLOYEE WERE ASSIGNED THE JOB OF CLEANING A TANK TRUCK WHICH HAD CONTAINED POLYPROPYLENE GLYCOL. THE TANK WAS FIRST CLEANED WITH HOT SO APY WATER IN A CLOSED SYSTEM. AFTER THE TANK TRUCK WAS DRAINED, EMPLOYEE #1 ENTE RED THE TANK TO CLEAN SOME SPOTS WITH METHYLENE CHLORIDE, A CLEANING AGENT USED FOR PETROLEUM BASED PRODUCTS. EMPLOYEE #1 WAS OVERCOME BY METHYLENE CHLORIDE AND COLLAPSED. HE DIED FIVE DAYS LATER. EMPLOYEE #1 DID NOT FOLLOW PROPER TANK ENTR Y PROCEDURES.

Victim

  1. #1 Fatality Age 21 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    8
    Source
    9
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    19
    Environmental factor
    9
    Task assigned
    1

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.